Hear The Music

An extra 4 decibels does not seem like a lot but it is when it comes to the new hearing aid microphones. Recently modern hearing aid microphones could only transduce up to 115 dB SPL (with 3-4% of distortion). Actually that had been the case since the late 1980s. However, the newest incarnation of microphones can transduce up to 119

Well, not “y” but it sounded better that way.  Y is actually a confusing letter with a long history of stupidity.  It was frequently interchanged with the old English consonant “eth” which looked like a backwards “p” but when the printing press came along, the top part of the “p” had a splotch of ink which destroyed the entire letter. 

Up until very recently, our collective amplified heads were submerged in a fog of front end distortion.  Sounds, including music and that of the voices of hard of hearing people who wear hearing aids, caused their own hearing aids to be overdriven even before the transmission reached the stage of the brilliantly designed software programming.  Even the best of algorithms

It wasn’t really panic, but I saw eyes full of shock.  It’s the type of shock that slowly comes on after knowing that something is not quite right, but we’re not sure what is wrong.  Suddenly it dawns … all of the senses become hyper-aware.  The lights suddenly go out and there is an ear piercing scream… There was a 30 dB notch

In last week’s part of this two-part blog series, the one benefit of having a long mold made for in-ear monitor impressions was discussed.   It had everything to do with minimizing the occlusion effect and absolutely nothing to do with ensuring that higher frequency sounds are properly transduced to the eardrum. In this week’s part, we discuss Dr. Robert Oliveira’s

On the acoustics advice from the world’s leading cat audiologist, Dr. Snicker’s McFeline, it became apparent that what is seen in the sound field, such as my living room, does not necessarily occur in the small occluded volume of an ear canal plugged with an earphone or in-ear monitor.  This was discussed in last week’s blog. Specifically, even though higher

I went to the vet for my regular check-up… actually it was for my two new kittens, Broccoli and Feather, not for me.  I still get the cats mixed up; they are both 4 months old, long haired female tabbies from the same litter, and to my untrained eye, look identical.  While sitting in the vet’s office, and while trying not

This past week, American Pharoah won the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.  The last time that this was accomplished was 37 years ago, and the time before that was 41 years ago by Secretariat.  (Secretariat’s trainer was a Canadian, eh?)   The difficulty of the Triple Crown lies in the fact that the first two legs are shorter

The music program is similar to the speech-in-quiet program In previous entries of this 7 part blog series, the problem and some clinical and technical solutions were discussed.  ASSUMING that we now have a hearing aid that can handle the higher sound level elements of music without distortion, what constitutes an optimal music program? In previous blog entries the benefits

Post 16 bit architectures There is a great formula for the calculation of the dynamic range based on bits.  It is 20nlog2.  You can use this to impress your friends, and even (if done properly), to make you the hit of the party.  Where else can you hear “log2” and “please pass the shrimp” in the same sentence? The hearing